Vienna: The Museum of Art History

Kunsthistorisches Museum, Wien

This guidebook to Vienna's Museum of Art History (edited by Elisabeth Herrmann-Fichtenau) was published by Prestel Museum Guides in 2007. It is available in four languages: German, English, Italian and French. All four versions are for sale in the museum shop. This review is based on the English version, which is listed on the Amazon UK website.

The book begins with a preface written by Wilfred Seipel, who was director general of the museum when the book was published.

Next Cäcilia Bischoff gives a short presentation of the museum building, which is a monument in itself.

The main text is divided into five chapters, covering five collections. Here is a brief overview:

** 1 - The Egyptian and Near Eastern Collection -- 19 pages (ca. 9 %)
** 2 - The Greek and Roman Collection -- 32 pages (ca. 15 %)
** 3 - The Chamber of Art -- 56 pages (ca. 26 %)
** 4 - The Picture Gallery -- 88 pages (ca. 42 %)
** 5 - The Coin Collection -- 15 pages (ca. 7 %)

The book concludes with an appendix: (a) index by artists; (b) index by inventory numbers.

This book is not a catalogue of all the items which are on display in the museum. It is a presentation of selected items, supposedly the most important and most famous items from each of the five collections. The items are presented one by one, with some text and an illustration. All illustrations are in colour.

As you can see, the five chapters do not have the same length. Chapter 4 (The Picture Gallery) is the longest; almost six times as long as chapter 5 (The Coin Collection). When chapter 4 is so much longer than chapter 5, it is not because the museum has a lot of pictures and only a few coins. The different length reflects the priorities of the editor.

It is, in my opinion, an unfortunate decision to allocate more than 40 per cent of the book to just one collection, while the other four get much less attention. If the editor had been more fair-minded, each collection would have received about 20 per cent of the space or 42 pages. It is a shame she did not understand this.

Here are some examples from the five collections:

CHAPTER 1
On page 32 we have a portrait of Thutmosis III. On page 39 we have the sarcophagus of Pa-Nehem-Isis. But I look in vain for the Amenhotep Stele from the 19th dynasty and the double-statue of Horus and Horemheb from the 18th dynasty.

CHAPTER 2
On page 42 there is a picture of a Roman portrait gallery. Several portraits show emperors, but none of them are shown alone. Why not?

On page 44 there is a picture of another Roman portrait gallery. Once again, several portraits show emperors, but the only emperor who is shown alone is Augustus, who appears on page 56. What about Trajan? Hadrian? Septimius Severus?

On page 51 we have a relief of Mithras killing the bull. But I look in vain for the sarcophagus decorated with the muses.

CHAPTER 3
From this chapter I will mention only one item: Benvenuto Cellini's Saliera (salt cellar), arguably the museum's most important item (a large picture of the salt cellar is placed on the back cover of the book).

The text does not mention the amazing story of the theft and recovery of this precious item, which was created in Paris 1540-1543. Therefore I will add a brief summary here: In 2003 the Saliera was stolen from the museum. In 2006 it was recovered and returned to the museum. Fortunately, it was still intact.

For more details about the case see for instance BBC News Online, 22 January 2006, and Richard Bernstein, New York Times, 26 January 2006.

After the theft, Seipel offered his resignation. It was not accepted, but in 2007 it was announced that his contract would not be renewed when it was going to expire on 31 December 2008. In January 2009 he was succeeded by Sabine Haag, who was until then the curator of the museum's Chamber of Art. Indeed, she is one of several authors listed for chapter 3.

CHAPTER 4
Of the large number of paintings presented in this chapter I will mention just three:

** The conquest of Jerusalem by Emperor Titus by Nicholas Poussin, ca. 1635

** The Imperial Summer Residence of Schönbrunn by Canaletto, 1759 or 1760

** The Tower of Babel by Peter Bruegel the Elder, ca. 1563

The title of the first painting is inaccurate: the conquest of Jerusalem took place in AD 70, during the reign of Vespasian. Titus was emperor 79-81.

[While the caption in the book is inaccurate, the label in the museum does not make this mistake.]

CHAPTER 5
This collection comprises not only coins issued as money but also medals issued in order to celebrate a special event. The introduction to the chapter presents the collection in the following way:

"Over the centuries the collection grew steadily, and now contains 700,000 items from three millennia. It is one of the largest and most important numismatic collections in the world."

Considering the size and importance of the collection, this chapter is much too short. There are only five Greek coins and only two Roman coins. Fortunately, we get both sides of them (obverse and reverse), and the pictures of the coins are enlarged, so that it is easier to see the details.

Some medals are included as well: we have for instance Medal Commemorating the Danish Victory in the Battle of Køge Bay engraved in 1677, and Maria Theresia Grace Medal engraved in 1743.

My conclusion: This is a good book about a great museum, probably the greatest museum in Vienna, and undoubtedly one of the really great museums of the world.

* * *

Elisabeth Herrmann-Fichtenau (editor),

Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna,

Prestel Verlag, 2007, 239 pages